‘Slovakia will maintain a ban on the import of certain agricultural products from Ukraine’, – Fico says

Slovakia will maintain a ban on the import of certain agricultural products from Ukraine, including sugar.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico made this announcement during a briefing.

“We will protect Slovak sugar producers, primarily by maintaining the ban on imports from Ukraine. Safeguarding the national market aligns with state interests,” stated Fico.

To recall, Slovakia imposed a ban on the import of 14 types of agricultural products from Ukraine since the end of last year. In addition to wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower seeds, whose import was prohibited in September, the new ban includes honey, sugar, malt, soybeans, wheat flour, cane, and beet sugar.

Meanwhile, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, has spoken against extending the free trade regime with Ukraine unless restrictions are imposed on the import of products from the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex into the European Union. Wojciechowski demands that the new regulation introduces quantitative restrictions on the import of poultry meat and sugar from Ukraine.

Additionally, Poland’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cheslav Sekerski, recently stated that the new Polish government, led by Donald Tusk, will maintain the ban on importing Ukrainian grain into the country.